Brendan Hutchens

Rather than compete with the international scope of Perth Festival, the city’s fringe festival is embracing the local arts community during its month-long run.

Fringe World director Amber Hasler says audience numbers are on the rise showing there is “a real hunger and genuine acceptance for this festival to be part of their lifestyle”. Now in its third year Fringe World is presenting 450 shows across 60 Perth venues.

“The local artists have embraced Fringe World as an opportunity for them to present their local work and their new work to an audience right here on their doorstep,” says Hasler.

“Theatre makers, performers and visual artists were making this sensation work and we found that the area that really needed to be developed was the audience.”

“We thought it would be a great opportunity for us to really invest in developing the audiences here in Western Australia and give them a platform to access some of the best local and national talent.”